Bradley Stoke feels like the sort of place that really ought to have a great broadband service. For a start, it's hardly remote - just a few miles north of Bristol and wedged between the M5 and M4 motorways.

It's a new town, most of its homes only 20 years old or so, and is packed with young professional people who commute to Bristol, Cardiff, Swindon or into the Midlands. Just the type who need and demand good broadband access for both work and pleasure.

But to the frustration and anger of many residents, Bradley Stoke is plagued by "not spots" where residents say they struggle to get a good, reliable broadband service.

"It's ridiculous," said Tim Smith, an engineering consultant who has just moved into the area and would like to work from home sometimes but finds he simply cannot trust the broadband service. "It's not like we're in a remote mountain range. We're two minutes from one of the biggest motorway junctions in the country and yet we can't watch the iPlayer half of the time."

Does he balk at the idea of a levy being raised on fixed phone lines to make sure broadband coverage is up to scratch? "If we get a 21st century service, I don't think people will mind paying a bit more," he said.

Businesspeople like Lee Rae-Moir, who runs a cleaning firm, Felina, from her home in Bradley Stoke, hopes that today's announcements by the government will make it easier for her to get the broadband service she needs - but is not convinced.

"I find it all confusing. It's horribly complicated. I used to be with Onetel and then that stopped. I was sold a Talk Talk package by a salesman on the phone and wished I hadn't done that. I'd like to think the government would sort it all out but I'm not sure I believe they will."

The problem with Bradley Stoke has been that it was built between two telephone exchanges - one at Almondsbury, one at Filton. The quality of the service has depended on how close your house happens to be to one of the exchanges. Homes in the centre of the town are likely to have the worst landline service - as low as 0.5 megabytes per second.

South Gloucestershire councillor Robert Jones is one of those who has led a campaign for better broadband access. "We know that Bradley Stoke is one of the biggest broadband not spots in the area and a classic example of Britain's digital divide," he said today.

"A lot of the town's problems are caused by our two local BT exchanges being too distant from homes, as well as the fact that many of the town's roads are uncabled and so do not have access to Virgin Media's high-speed network."

Jones is one of those who has poor broadband speeds and seems sceptical about the report. "I would hope the Digital Britain report actually leads to some tangible improvements, and is not simply designed to be a headline grabbing initiative," he said.

The issue has been one that the town's two community web-based papers have campaigned vigorously on. The Bradley Stoke Examiner has called on people to send in their experiences (by email, which could be a problem for some) to put pressure on BT to improve the service.

Ahead of today's announcement, one reader, James, wrote to the site: "I am prevented from working from home because of the poor broadband provision. For a town with such a high proportion of professional people in residence, the awful broadband service available to the majority of residents is simply unacceptable."

Tim said: "I just moved out of Rosemary Close due to it not having a fast enough connection."

Wolf added: "Very slow broadband, not much point turning it on between 7pm and 9pm unless you're patient. The traffic at Aztec West at 9am is faster."

AndyB wrote: "Bradley Stoke is twinned with Champs-Sur-Marne in France. I understand that in France, their broadband providers offer 100 Mbps as standard. What must they think when they come to visit Bradley Stoke?"

Andrew Ferguson, of the website guide thinkbroadband, said there were communities across the UK like Bradley Stoke that suffered because new homes were so far from exchanges, or because "there can be physical features such as a motorway or a river that affect the service."

In Bradley Stoke the likes of David Greenough just want a decent service, no matter whether there is a big road or river in the way. He is about to be made redundant and will need to search for a new job on the internet. He has just switched to Talk Talk. "They say it's going to be much faster. I don't know if they are spoofing me. I've just bought an iPod so I'm going to see if that works on it. I hope the government does get it all sorted now. It feels like we are being a little bit left behind here."

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

Although most of the attention on the recent Digital Britain report has been on the less-interactive media, there are some very interesting implications for the games industry in Lord Carter's review that we thought we'd highlight for you here